Twitch has unveiled brand-new policies in its community guidelines that promote healthy discussion and zero tolerance for hate speech and harassment. The revised set of rules focus on handing down harsher punishments for anyone found in violation.
Twitch laid it all down in a blog post Friday, Feb. 9. The new rules seek to improve user safety and crack down on toxic behavior, including harassment and related dialogue. Ultimately, the goal is to make the platform a much cleaner, safer, and civilized venue for users.
Twitch Outs New Rules On Harassment, Sexual Content
"Our goal is to ensure Twitch is a place where everyone feels welcome and we will continue to listen to you as we grow and adapt these policies as needed," wrote Twitch. Harassment, in particular, is a huge problem — for women, most especially.
Often, women streamers who wear revealing clothes are subject to harassment in various levels, whether subtle or explicit. Some even accuse them of being "titty streamers" because they exploit their own bodies to rack up views and invite donations in.
Previously, Twitch's guidelines maintained that "nudity and conduct involving overtly sexual behavior and/or attire" is prohibited, but the revised rules now advise against "attire intended to be sexually suggestive." Specifically, streamers must not be wearing "undergarments, intimate apparel" or deliberately exposing or focusing "on male or female genitals, buttocks, or nipples."
Twitch also notes that it won't tolerate users using the policy mentioned above as a basis to harass other streamers on or off Twitch — whether or not they think those streamers are breaking the rules.
Not Just On Twitch
Under the new anti-harassment policy, Twitch states that hateful conduct will result in the violator being suspended indefinitely. Most notably, Twitch's new policies go beyond its own platform, as it says it will consider harassment of users via other channels or venues as a violation of its own rules.
Make sure to read Twitch's blog post to get more details about all the changes.
The new rules go into effect starting Feb. 19. Twitch says it's just the first of many improvements to be implemented on the platform.
"Our goal is to ensure everyone understands and adheres to the updated Community Guidelines so you can keep creating content for your communities."
Thoughts about Twitch's new rules? As always, if you have anything to share, feel free to sound them off in the comments section below!
